Smeding 351W timing

[Sledge]

For those who will tell me to do a search, I already did and didn't find the specific data I needed.

I have a 351W, apparently built by Smeding, with MSD ignition, Edelbrock Performer RPM heads, Air Gap manifold, Holley 770 CFM Street Avenger, and 385 hp or so. I do street driving only, pump gas.

What should the timiung be set to? I've had the car for 2 years and haven't touched anything. But I haven't been able to find out what the timing should be, and at what RPM. Any and all help appreciated.

[Manowar]

Sledge,
About 14 deg initial with 30 or 32 total, all in by 2800 or so.

[Sledge]

Thank you!!!

[Bob In Ct]

If you have vacuum advance, plug it. But you probably know that or don't have it or both.

Bob

[Rick Parker]

S-m-e-d-i-n-g

[Sledge]

Rick:

That's what I said, er, spelled, er, what is it you are trying to say?

[MFE III]

Sledge, call them. They're very helpful and would be pleased to answer any q's you have.
916 638 0899

[jeffko]

A good starting place is as Manowar stated. It also depends on what the engine likes, compression, carb tuning and getting good manifold vacuum. Most aluminum head designs can take a lot of advance though. I have had mine as high as 22 experimenting with setups with 11.0:1 and AFR205 heads on 93 octane and no detonation. After 22 degrees you could tell then engine didn'y like it and idle suffered. Probably would have started detonating at that point. I even tried 110 low lead aviation fuel with the same settings which helped the engine run cooler but little else. My engine performs it's best at 14 initial and 38 total @ 3000 rpm.

[Secret Squirrel]

Sledge,

I have the Smeding 351W Extreme, with the same parts you listed. There is no vacuum advance on my MSD distributor, yours should be the same. Armond told me to set the timing to 18 at idle. I have mine set there and it works good. I recently changed my MSD 6A ignition box to the 6AL. I checked the timing after the swap and it was still set to 18 at idle (800 rpm).
I have a copy of the spec sheet for the 351W Extreme. If you want a copy let me know.

Call Ben Smeding, if you need any help or questions, he is very helpful.

[Sledge]

Gents:

Thank you Jeffko. Secret, I have a copy of the spec sheet but it doesn't say anything about timing. In fact I have a copy of yours that you sent a few months back. Thank you for that

MFE, the reason I went to this forum is I called Smeding once and e-mailed them twice trying to get the timing info. I got pretty much everything else but for some reason no timing info. Maybe I just caught them on off days.

Thanks everyone for the responses.